Feather & Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify feathers by species — with feather type, plumage, colours, size, habitat, and how to tell them apart in the field.
Pinyon Jay
A uniformly blue, short-tailed, crestless jay of the western pinyon-juniper woodlands, famous for its large nomadic flocks and close relationship with pine seeds.
corvid
Northern Raven
The largest songbird in the world, with massive black flight feathers and a distinctive wedge-shaped tail, plus shaggy throat feathers unlike any other corvid.
corvid
Northern Mockingbird
A slim gray songbird famous for its vocal mimicry, identifiable by the bold white patches on its wings and the white outer edges of its long tail.
songbird
Rock Wren
A pale, finely speckled wren of arid rocky terrain, identified by its habit of bobbing on boulders and its buffy-tipped tail corners flashed in flight.
songbird
Great Grey Shrike
A pale gray Eurasian predator songbird with a black mask and long tail, often seen perched conspicuously atop bushes or wires while watching for prey.
songbird
Chimney Swift
A cigar-shaped aerial bird with uniformly sooty gray-brown plumage and stiff, spine-tipped tail feathers used to brace against vertical surfaces.
other
Black Phoebe
A dark, tail-wagging flycatcher almost always found perched near water, easily told by its sooty black body and clean white belly.
songbird
Sedge Wren
A tiny North American wren of wet sedge meadows, streaked above with a short indistinct eyebrow and a habit of cocking its short tail.
songbird
Zenaida Dove
A warm cinnamon-brown Caribbean dove closely related to the Mourning Dove, told apart by its shorter, rounded tail edged in white.
dove pigeon
Rufous-breasted Hermit
A warm-toned hermit hummingbird of forest edges and streamsides, distinguished by rufous-cinnamon underparts and a rufous-edged tail contrasting with green upperparts.
hummingbird
Tacazze Sunbird
A large highland sunbird of East Africa with elongated central tail feathers and male plumage that gleams deep purple and green in good light.
songbird
Spruce Grouse
A boreal forest grouse with dark, densely barred plumage, a black throat patch in males, and a short tail typically tipped with rust-orange.
gamebird
Ocellated Turkey
A striking Central American turkey with vivid blue-bronze iridescent body feathers and tail feathers marked with distinctive eye-shaped spots.
gamebird
Northern Waterthrush
A streaky, ground-walking warbler of wooded wetlands and stream edges that constantly bobs its tail while foraging along muddy banks.
songbird
Mrs. Gould's Sunbird
A vividly multicolored Himalayan and Southeast Asian sunbird, males showing a crimson back, yellow rump, and long purple-blue tail streamers.
songbird
Koklass Pheasant
A grey-bodied Himalayan pheasant with a bold black-and-white head pattern, a chestnut breast patch, and a distinctive short, wedge-shaped tail.
gamebird
Eurasian Treepie
A slender, rufous-brown corvid with a black head and an extremely long graduated tail, common in gardens and open woodland across South Asia.
corvid
Eurasian Magpie
A boldly pied corvid whose black feathers flash iridescent blue-green and purple in the light, with an unmistakably long, wedge-shaped tail.
corvid
Black Grouse
A Eurasian grouse whose male is famous for its glossy black plumage and dramatically curved lyre-shaped tail, displayed at communal leks.
gamebird
Bicknell's Thrush
A rare, high-elevation thrush closely resembling the Gray-cheeked Thrush, separated mainly by subtle tail color, bill pattern, and habitat.
songbird
Azure-winged Magpie
A slender, pastel-toned corvid with a black cap and soft blue wings and tail, common in flocks across East Asian woodland and parkland.
corvid
Andean Emerald
A clean-looking Andean hummingbird combining a glittering green throat and back with notably pale, whitish underparts and a tail showing a blue tinge.
hummingbird
Welcome Swallow
The Welcome Swallow is a small, agile aerial insectivore with glossy blue-black upperparts, a rufous face, and a deeply forked tail, common over open country and towns.
songbird
Nicobar Pigeon
The Nicobar Pigeon is a striking island pigeon with long, shimmering hackle-like neck feathers in shifting metallic greens and coppers, set off by a pure white tail.
dove pigeon